26th ITS World Congress, Singapore, 21-25 October 2019
EU-CP1984
Cycling4Trees – A gamification approach to strengthen cycling in cities
Astrid Kellermann1*, Dr. Jan Kätker2
1. Siemens Mobility GmbH, Germany, astrid.kellermann@siemens.com
2. VMZ Berlin, Germany, jan.kaetker@vmzberlin.com
Abstract
Mobility is a crucial success factor for cities but also a major challenge. In order to manage the
growing transportation demand, it will be more and more important to make best use of all
traffic modes. Hereby, many cities discovered the bicycle as an indispensable element of their
mobility landscape. Cycling4Trees is a new routing app for cyclists using gamification to
address major cities' needs: strengthen the shift from car to bicycle, enhance cycling safety
and collect data to improve planning of cycling infrastructure. The system has been
demonstrated in the course of two trial runs, as a competition between city teams. It showed
an excellent user acceptance and very positive impacts on modal shift. In combination with
related ITS technologies such as cycling detection, consideration of cyclists in traffic control
and environmental traffic management, Cycling4Trees will contribute to improve the
conditions for cyclists, protect climate and reduce emissions - altogether key factors that will
make cities more attractive places to live.
Keywords:
Modal shift, cycling, gamification
Introduction
Urbanization is a major challenge for the urban mobility
More and more people are living in cities, with a growing tendency [1]. It is expected that the urban
population will increase globally from 55% in 2018 to 68% by 2050. [2]. Therefore, there is still a
need to exploit new dwelling areas within and around cities, although the building and transportation
network density already now are often facing the limits. Private mobility providers, mostly following
their own economic agenda and competing with public transport, are even worsening the situation. A
well-known example are private taxi services in London [3].
The consequences are heavy congestion on streets and crowded public transport during the peak hours,
meaning a loss of time and quality of life as well as economic damage. Traffic is significantly
contributing to air pollution, greenhouse gases and climate change. For example, in 2016, in Germany
20.6% of the CO2 production derived from road and rail traffic [4]. In terms of accidents, in cities,
Cycling4Trees – A gamification approach to strengthen cycling in cities
especially vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists are concerned. E. g. in Germany, 2018
the total number of traffic fatalities decreased by 10.2% compared to 2010, whereas cycling fatalities
increased by more than 16.8% [5].
At the same time, cities must cope with the “Right to clean air” [6], the vital need to combat climate
change according to the Paris Agreement 2015 [7] and “Vison Zero 2050”– zero traffic accidents by
2050 claimed by the European Commission [8].
Without any doubt, convincing mobility concepts are essential for the prosperity of cities in order to
remain attractive, liveable and accessible, not just for the growing number of citizens, for the delivery
of goods and the economy, but also for commuters and tourists. To meet these requirements, cities
have two levers at their disposal: the reduction of individual car traffic and the efficient management
of the remaining traffic. While in the past emphasis has been given to various measures of traffic
optimisation, including information, control and management, car traffic reduction will be key for the
future. This can be reached by a combination of “pull measures” such as enhancing the attractiveness
of “green” traffic modes (e. g. by prioritization or incentivation) and “push measures” (e. g. city tolling,
environmental zones, parking restrictions and enforcement). The long-term vision must be the
management of a balanced intermodal mobility system with a bundle of measures, involving the
different mobility infrastructure operators and fleets, making best use of all transportation modes and
following coherent, societal traffic management strategies.
Cycling - a sustainable traffic mode with some disadvantages
There are strong reasons to strengthen cycling in cities: cycling means moving fast, at low costs, with
very low space requirements, without parking problems and at 100% zero emissions. Accordingly,
strengthening cycling is the declared objective of many cities. A prominent example is Copenhagen,
where the share of cycling in modal split already today reached impressive 30% related to all trips, and
even 41% related to trips to work. For the near future, Copenhagen even aims to significantly exceed
these shares [9]. Especially in Europe, many promising ideas and projects to improve the conditions
for cyclists are still in the planning phase, e. g. Radbahn Berlin: A team of experts from different fields
elaborated a detailed plan on how to transform the covered area beneath the U1 rail line into a 9 km
cycling path and an area of leisure and arts [10]. A first step towards this long-term project is a
showcase path of 200 m length which has recently been approved by the City of Berlin and the
German Minister of Interior and Building. [11]
However, some critical disadvantages often prevent people from cycling:
• The urban infrastructure is mostly not optimized for cyclists, leading to safety and
convenience issues; there is a high risk of injury [5]
• The range of the bicycle is lower than the one of the car or public transport
• Weather conditions have a significant influence on cycling
• There is a lack of cycling related mobility data which would be needed to improve the urban
infrastructure for cyclists.
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Cycling4Trees – A gamification approach to strengthen cycling in cities
What needs to be done to strengthen cycling in cities
Though cycling is booming, there is still a lot more that could be achieved. E. g. in Germany, more
than 77% of the people own a bike, however, 54% are still using the car for short distance trips of 2 - 5
kilometres [12].
The basic prerequisite is the provision of an optimized cycling infrastructure. According to a study
conducted in Copenhagen 2017, people would cycle more if there would be more and wider cycling
tracks, the conditions for cyclists were improved and if they would feel more secure [9]. But also,
suitable weather protected parking facilities [13] and interchange possibilities to public transport [14]
are important. To provide an appropriate cycling infrastructure, including
• A safe and efficient cycling network with a minimum of conflicts points
• Adequate capacities of clearly arranged and protected cycling parking spaces and
• comfortable interchange options to public transport,
is a request which clearly addresses the cities.
At the top of this, various ITS systems can help to make cycling more attractive and to integrate it into
urban traffic management. As this is a relatively new field, there are many unused and unexplored
possibilities, e. g.
• intensify the detection of cyclists to get a better understanding of the cycling demand,
• develop and implement technologies to protect cyclists and to give them priority in the urban
network
• find and apply new ways to convince people using the bicycle instead of the car
As a matter of a fact, various ITS technologies came up recently, specifically addressing cycling, such
as
• Dedicated cycling detection, e.g. by infrared, radar or inductive loop detectors or
camera-based object recognition
• Combined cycling counting and monitoring stations, indicating the cycling traffic volume,
thus strengthening the cycling community, e. g. in Brussels and Copenhagen
• Consideration or even prioritization of cyclists at urban intersections, e.g. app based, such as
SiBike in Marburg [15]
• Cycling apps offering incentives to enhance the motivation to cycle, e. g. Radbonus [16]
• Bike and E-Bike Sharing, providing seamless access to bicycles, combined with data
collection, e. g. E-Bike Sharing Lisbon [17]
Cycling4Trees – a gamification app which addresses major cities’ needs
Objectives and background
This paper introduces Cycling4Trees, a mobile phone app, developed by Siemens Mobility and VMZ
Berlin, which aims to enhance the usage of bicycles by means of competition, motivation and
gamification. Thus, Cycling4Trees represents a typical “pull measure”, as described before, aiming to
shift car traffic to the bicycle. The app addresses major cities’ needs:
• Modal shift to cycling, helping to protect climate and reduce emissions
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Cycling4Trees – A gamification approach to strengthen cycling in cities
• Strengthening environmental awareness by informing about CO2 savings compared to the car
• Enhancement of cycling safety with a special routing function that avoids safety blackspots
• Collection of tracking data for the identification of OD-relations and frequented paths in order
to get a better data basis for infrastructure planning
This Siemens idea has already been introduced to the Streetlife project, which was funded in the FP7
Smart Cities Programme. There, Siemens implemented the first trial under the name “BikeRider” in
cooperation with other partners with good results [18], [19]. In 2018, Siemens decided to develop a
similar system called as “Cycling4Trees”, as part of the Siemens Mobility ITS product portfolio in the
context of environmental traffic management and green portfolio.
System Architecture
Cycling4Trees is a system consisting of a smart phone app, a backend system and web dashboards for
the system owner and for the community. The simplified system architecture with major backend
functions are shown in figure 1.
Mobile App Backend
Mode
Validation Database
Community Landing Page
Gamification
Routing
Engine
System Owner Dashboard
Figure 1 – System Architecture of Cycling4Trees
The mobile phone app serves as interface to the user. It provides routing, tracking, access to
data and ranking and gamification features with a virtual trees map.
The backend communicates with the app on the user’s smart phone. Its basic task is to
conduct the competition. Hereby, in a first step, an algorithm analyses the tracking data to
verify the route as cycling. Then, the gamification engine calculates gaming points as well as
the individual and the team ranking. Also, the tracking data is stored in an anonymous way
in a protected data base.
Two web dashboards have been developed: a public dashboard for the community and a
password and one-time-pin protected system owner dashboard. Both provide statistics, high
score tables, team ranking, diagrams and the virtual trees map. Additionally, the system
owner dashboard enables to sort, select and download data for an in-depth evaluation, and to
visualize selected routes on a map.
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Cycling4Trees – A gamification approach to strengthen cycling in cities
Mode of operation
In order to participate in the Cycling4Trees competition, users need to register, choose a user
name, join one of the defined teams and accept the terms of use, especially to get tracked
during the cycling trip. This is required for the verification of the driven kilometres as cycling
– a prerequisite for fairness in the game, but also to calculate the gaming points and the
ranking.
Generally, the competition can be carried out between different teams, individual cyclists, or
as a combination of both options. This depends on the rules agreed with the customer.
When the user starts a trip, he can request a route from A to B. However, routing and/or
following the recommended route is not compulsory for the competition. The user can also just
activate the tracking function and stop it after his arrival. Then, tracking data will be
submitted to the backend and verified there. Gaming points will be calculated and returned to
the cyclist, together with some additional information: driven kilometres, burned calories and
CO2, saved in comparison to an average car trip. After completing 25 kilometres, the user
earns a virtual tree which he can “plant” on the gamification map layer. He can select the
location and the shape of the virtual tree which will be combined with his user name. On
fingertip, the planter of the virtual tree will be visible to all participants, including the
planting day and the virtual CO2 bound by this tree so far. If the competition is carried out
between different teams, each team will plant trees of equal colour: a good overview about the
status of the teams in the competition. Via the app, the users can follow the ranking in a table
showing the kilometres, points and virtual trees by individual cyclist and by team. Figure 2
shows some app screenshots of the mentioned functions: profile, settings, routing, feedback
provided at the end of the trip, gamification layer with virtual trees in different colours, and
ranking.
Figure 2- Screenshots of the Cycling4Trees App
At the defined end of the competition, the winners – these can be individual users as well as
teams – will earn real incentives.
Case Study
A first functional field test of Cycling4Trees was conducted in the period of September 24th
until October 31st, 2018, as a restricted competition (“beta test”) with voluntary participants.
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Cycling4Trees – A gamification approach to strengthen cycling in cities
They competed in two teams, Munich and Berlin. Kilometres and points could be collected
everywhere in the world, the area has not been restricted to the two cities. However, each
cyclist had to join one of the defined teams. The app was not available publicly at this stage
but provided to interested cyclists individually. Despite this, 160 persons tested the app
actively, mostly Siemens employees, basically from different German Cities, but also cyclists
from Austria and Switzerland.
Within this competition, a safe routing function was provided for the city area of Berlin,
avoiding safety blackspots. This function is based on an evaluation of police records on
cyclists’ accidents, conducted by VMZ Berlin. This function has been regarded as highly
relevant; however, it can only be provided if the corresponding input is available, which was
not the case for Munich.
During the testing phase, the reliability of mode detection and data collection has been
increased significantly by different updates related to the mode detection algorithms as well
as the temporary data storage on smart phone side.
The offered rewards for the winners were real city trees with winner badges. They would bind
CO2 and improve city climate, for the benefit of all. It was amazing to see the enthusiastic
participation of many cyclists, even though the rewards were just ideational and not personal.
Results
In the first test, both teams Munich and Berlin, cycled more than 40,000 kilometres with the
App. This corresponds approximately to the length of the equator. The continuous
participation of the users over a period of six weeks verified the selected gamification
approach as an effective motivation. 1,200 virtual trees were planted all over Europe: lemon
green trees by the Munich team, dark green trees by the Berlin team. Some users managed to
plant their own virtual forests and alleys and fought for the most prominent locations in the
city centres, such as Berlin Alexanderplatz and Munich Marienplatz, as shown in figure 3.
Figure 3 – Virtual trees planted during the testing period 2018
The screenshot of the dashboard in figure 4 shows statistics of the testing period 2018. The
first diagram shows the number of cyclists per day, separated by the two teams, maximum is
35. The second diagram shows kilometres driven per day by team, maximum is 250 km. The
third diagram shows the number of virtual trees planted by team, maximum is 45.
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Cycling4Trees – A gamification approach to strengthen cycling in cities
Figure 4 – Statistics and routes visualization on system owner dashboard
Many of the participants already were committed cyclists, such as the winner of the
competition, who drove more than 2,700 kilometres in total - an iron man from Frankfurt and
member of the Munich team. However, the feedback showed, that also many trips where
shifted from car to bicycle. A sample investigation involving 25 users who together
contributed 25,000 kilometres, showed that they would have carried out 15% of their
kilometres by car instead.
An important activity during the six weeks tests was the continuous communication with the
participating cyclists. They helped us identify required adaptations and they contributed
many ideas to make the app more attractive in the future.
At the end of the competition, team Munich as the winning team earned two real trees, and
the busiest cyclists of the two teams earned one tree each. These trees were planted in spring
2019, with winner badges, as shown in figure 5. This is a small but hopefully developing
contribution to environmental awareness and climate protection.
Figure 5 – Real city trees planted in Munich and Berlin for the winners in spring 2019
Conclusions and next steps
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Cycling4Trees – A gamification approach to strengthen cycling in cities
Second case study conducted by Siemens Mobility
After the successful completion of the tests in 2018, a second challenge has been started by
Siemens Mobility in July 2019, as a three rounds competition between the city teams Berlin,
Cologne and Munich. For this competition, the App could be downloaded by the general public
from GooglePlay and AppStore. The challenge 2019 has been announced within the Siemens
premises, via Siemens Intranet and web page and via social media, like Twitter, Instagram
and LinkedIn and advertised in selected bicycle stores. Also, a dedicated video spot has been
posted on YouTube. As this challenge is still active while finalizing this paper, no final results
are available yet but it is planned to provide figures directly at the ITS World Congress 2019
in Singapore.
Envisaged improvements
Though the results obtained so far are promising, we are aware that many improvements still
could enhance the acceptance of the app. Some envisaged additional functions addressing the
end-user are e. g. to enable user feedback on safety critical locations in the street network,
individual route export to share via social media, route export to other apps, e.g. for sports
and a “meeting friends function”, in order to cycle together. For the cities, a configurable API
is needed, so that they can access and download data easily from the system owner dashboard
for detailed evaluation.
Business case and outlook
So far, Cycling4Trees has been applied as a Siemens Mobility initiative to support green
mobility. For the future it is planned to provide it as a service to customers, especially to cities.
Thereby VMZ would adapt the system on request, conduct the competition and provide the
data access.
It is obvious that with city support, a larger cycling community could be addressed for
participation. The higher number of users would provide a larger data sample which would
also improve the quality of information by a broader coverage for a better infrastructure
planning.
As mobile phone apps are not core business elements of the Siemens product landscape, we
rather see the benefit in combination with other products, such as cycling detection,
environmental traffic management, or planning/consulting activities.
We are now looking for cities who would like to implement Cycling4Trees and work with us to
create a greener and more sustainable mobility. We are convinced that especially in
combination with related ITS technologies, the App will contribute to making cycling more
attractive, protect climate and reduce emissions.
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Cycling4Trees – A gamification approach to strengthen cycling in cities
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